So, Kastrup - why name yourself after the Danish airport?
For us, the residents of Malmö, Kastrup is much more than just an airport. It is the train station that you’re passing by, drunk and hungry on your way home from a wet night in Copenhagen, saying "Why don’t we just do it? Let’s get off here and take the first cheapest plane away from here. We just do it! Run away from everything”. Kastrup is also the node that we need to take us to to get out in the the world. It represents so much more than just an airport. There's also something exciting about airports, it is always a very special atmosphere, it's a no man's land, the definitive border between something new and something old.
You’re both from Sweden - Malmö to be precise. What was it like when Eurovision came to town?
Timmie: That's right, Eurovision 2013 huh? I don’t remember actually. I recall that there were very many bewildered tourists, a lot of different music stages around the town. A good vibe!
Puppe: Remember seeing it on big screen in “Folkets park” with Timmie actually. A lot of people and a good vibe!
Now - you both met at the Malmö academy of music. Did you immediately hit it off?
Timmie: It is becoming more and more blurred to me, how it actually happened. I know that we did some school assignments together. I remember that I thought that Puppe had something special, and above all something I had not. I wanted to be near him, to learn more, but also to get the opportunity to work more together in the future. Then we became friends during the time outside of the school, so the step was not that far.
Puppe: Same thing here. I don’t remember the start of it. But I guess we had some school assignment, started talking about music and I could tell Timmie had a great sense of music and songwriting. I remember us going to his rehearsal room, (which I got in on later), brought beer and started jammin’ with two keyboards and microphones, and I thought it was great! Later we booked one of the schools' studios to just “record something”, and we ended up with a nice ballad, not so Kastrup-ish though, but nice! I guess that was a bit like a start for something but we didn't know it was the start of Kastrup.
You are one of my favourite unsigned Swedish acts of 2015 thanks to Thieves. It is bloody immense. Where did the song come from?
Timmie: It's a very old song. I think I wrote it around 2008/2009 when I studied theatre in the middle of nowhere in Skåne. There were pianos everywhere in the school. I always used to sit down and play something. Thieves was that kind of song that just came to me. It’s hard to say how. It’s always like that. I think the class rehearsed a play and during the break I went away to be by myself for awhile, sat down at a piano and sang the song that years later would become “Thieves”. It has been sprouting for a long time, but I have refused to let it go. I have always known that it is a very good song. I just needed to figure out how to do it.
Despite its BIGNESS I could totally envisage an awesome naked acoustic version as a b-side/download….it is a brilliant song. Can that happen?
A few weeks ago we actually did an extremely naked version of Thieves, live on Swedish radio. Don’t know if it's possible to hear now, will check on it! But we have some plans to make an acoustic version, live video or something like that. Hold on!
Its a bit different to more rockier Lydia. Your first single. Can you tell me something about the genesis of Lydia and why its a different shade of pop to Thieves…
It's really not that much difference. It is all about the mix. There are at least as many synths in Lydia as in Thieves, but right there and then we gave the guitars a bigger role and decided to go in the indie-pop / rock direction.
The biggest difference is probably that in the genesis of Lydia we were a band. We were five musicians who jammed until the arrangement sounded good live, right the in the rehearsal room. That’s also why Lydia is an extremely good live song, the arrangement is written to sound good with loud drums and distorted guitars directly in the room.
Thieves contains some seriously sexy synths - please tell me we are gonna hear some more from them.
You will certainly hear more synths! That we can promise. But it's not that fun to head in to the studio and choose "The Epic Thieves preset" on every song we write. We are constantly trying to find new and interesting sounds.
You’re both rather nice looking chaps - so why aint you in the Thieves Video?!
Haha, thank you! Actually, we had an idea about having us in the video. But Christopher (the man who came up with the idea and then did it all, director, photographer and producer) thought it would be "too messy" and that it would ruin the whole vibe. We trusted him. We will certainly appear in some video in the future :)
Are you thinking of performing soon and any time in London?
Of course! That is absolutely our plan. Maybe this fall, but more realistic is that you’ll see us in early 2016!
Will you be releasing new material soon? To consolidate on Thieves? Want more.
We are working with about five to ten songs right now, two of them are candidates to be the next single. However, it is just a waste to release any of them during the summer, there is hardly no one who listens to what you say then. The plan is to be release the next Kastrup single in early September. Hold on!
If you could a covers EP of Swedish Hits - which 5 songs would you pick and why.
Wow, erhm. Tough question. Not that we think that we could do it better than the original, but...
- Duvchi - Turtleduvs
- Thomas Stenström - Fåglar
- Amason - Ålen
- Axwell^Ingrosso - On my way
- Me and my army - The only one
What acts from Sweden inspire you the most?
Seinabo Sey, Frida Sundemo, Silvana Imam, Jonathan Johansson, Kent, Vincent Pontare & Salem Al Fakir (mostly as songwriters and producers to Avicii, Seinabo, Veronica Maggio, Axwell & Ingrosso.)
What are the biggest challenges being an unsigned act?
The time. To get the time to suffice. We do everything ourselves. We write, record, manage public relations and do the marketing activities. We’re booking our, we’re networking, e-mailing, update our social media, keep in touch with fans and audience and so on and so on. Then of course, channels. It takes time to build up such large channels and that kind of network that an established record company has.
So would you like to stay unsigned - or rather what I mean is, be somewhat like Robyn, Konichiwa Records and have arrangements with the majors)
That is something that we’re thinking about very much nowadays. The Robyn arrangement with Konichiwa is almost becoming a standard now among more established artists. If we will do the same, don’t really know yet, we'll see. Again, it is something we are discussing right now. One step at a time.
Do you think its still important to have that larger representation - would you like to get that support from a big label?
You're on to something that the entire industry discusses very much right now, what should one have a major label for? Really? Now that there are so many tools for the individual creator to do everything yourself. Being signed to a Major also means to compete with the world's greatest artists. You get a tiny little attention in a big, big bank with already very established artists. It's all about visions and approaches. If we find someone who thinks like us and the chemistry is there, then you never know what can happen :)
You’ve majored in pop production at MAM. What other Swedish producers would you love to work the most?
Timmie: Wow, hard question. So many! I’m a big fan of the Danish producer Jon "Joshua" Schumann (Kashmir, Mew, Kent, Carpark North), but yeah, he’s Danish, haha. Would be cool to do something with Magnus Lidehäll (Mapei, Seinabo Sey, Veronica Maggio) or Joel Humlén (Frida Sundemo).
Puppe: Magnus Lidhäll would have been fun maybe! But, yeah hard question!
Please say the follow-up is gonna be soon! Whats next for Kastrup - are there songs shortlisted as potential singles yet? Or do you guys wanna keep it an open field and see what happens?
There’s two potential singles right now. Their working titles are “Come and get me” and “You and I”, but you’ll never know. We’ll spend the summer in our new studio. Maybe the next single is not even written yet. Who knows. But the plan is to release it in September! Stay tuned.
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Buy the single here: Thieves
Kastrup: Facebook
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